Based on the 2017 memoir of Japanese journalist Shihori Ito, ‘Black Box Diaries’ is a critically acclaimed documentary produced and directed by Ito herself as she seeks for justice, investigating her own sexual assault case involving former head of the Tokyo Broadcasting System Noriyuki Yamaguchi.
The documentary had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20 in the World Cinema Documentary Competition program. It has since been screened at SXSW Film Festival, San Francisco Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature, Saravejo Film Festival and New Zealand Film Festival where it won the Audience Award.
Release Date
Directed by Shihori Ito, ‘Black Box Diaries’ opens at New York’s Film Forum on October 25, 2024 before expanding to theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago on November 1, 2024.
Synopsis
‘Black Box Diaries’ follows Japanese journalist Shiori Ito’s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Unfolding like a thriller and combining secret investigative recordings, vérité shooting and emotional first-person video, Shiori’s quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s desperately outdated judicial and societal systems.
A journalist, writer and filmmaker with a focus on gender-based human rights issues, Shiori Ito wrote the bestselling book “Black Box” based on her experience. The book went on to win the Free Press Association of Japan Award for Best Journalism in 2018 and is now available in 11 languages, including English. In 2020 Ito was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.
Reviews
Marlow Stern in a Rolling Stone review praised the documentary, writing, “Shiori Itō changed the world. And Black Box Diaries is a monument to her determination and sacrifice, as well as one of the best documentaries you’ll see all year.”
Ross McIndoe in a Slant Magazine review gave the documentary a score of 3/4, writing, “The film leaves on a razor’s edge between hope and despair, encouraged on the one hand by the passion with which justice is being demanded and, on the other, depressed by the widespread indifference with which these demands are met.”
Trailer
Watch the official trailer for ‘Black Box Diaries.’